Chapter 2

Lori

Lori had followed the Monster, she had leapt from branch to branch like her and her brother would when playing, she felt the tears as she thought of her brother she pushed the thought away as she watched the encounter with the Beast Men and the Monster. She had conflicting emotions when she saw the Monster engulfed in flames. On one hand she was upset that the monster had died so quickly, it would shorten her time to escape and it had helped her, on the other hand she thought it was probably best that something so terrifying had died. That was until she saw the blur of movement in the flames, the Monster had leapt from the smoke and fire that surrounded it directly at its attackers.

The Monster fought with little skill, but what it lacked in skill it made up for in speed and strength, it was a blur among the three riders and dragons. Lori watched amazed as the Monsters skin still smoking killed the last of its attackers, she watched stunned as the Monster collapsed to its knees, it seemed to be trying to remove its head. Lori quickly dropped from the tree and ran toward the Monster, perhaps it was injured, it had aided her surely she should return the favor, its what her mother would of called good manners.

Lori stopped dead once the creature removed its helmet, she was stunned into in action, it was a female beast men, its long blond hair came free of the helmet as it dropped it to the floor, she was throwing up and crying at the same time, she seemed to be looking at the blood on its hands. That alone made Lori react, she ran the rest of the way and grabbed her hand, even if it was from the beast mens clan she had still helped Lori.

The women looked up and met Lori eyes, Lori quickly motioned toward the sky to indicate more would be coming, the Beast women seemed to understand and nodded. It wiped its mouth and put its helmet back on, What Lori had thought was a giant insect ended up being like the metal skin of the beast men. Her tribe tended to use primarily leather armor, and that was to hunt game not to fight battles, the idea of putting on that strange skins made her skin crawl, it was then that the shadow passed over the small clearing.

Elle.

Elle had just finished retching onto the ground, she was looking at her bloodied exoskeletons hands, she had never killed anything before, she had reacted on instinct striking out with out thought, she hadn't even used the sword. She felt the child's hand in hers and looked at her, the child looked concerned and pointed toward the sky, there must be more of these people, Elle nodded and put her helmet back on.

She made to stand when she saw the shadow pass over head, she heard the flap of giant wings, she should of noticed it sooner. She heard something large hit the dirt, she looked over to see a knight in armor crouched, he had jumped from the dragon. Elle watched as he held up his sword, he was doing something as it started to glow, it looked like Runes began to light up over his sword and armor.

Elle looked down at the girl and moved to stand in front of her, she took her sword from her back and raised it, she had some combat training which she was currently struggling to remember. The knight seemed to blur with movement, Elle felt it before she saw it, she got a strange sense of energy from the knights approach. She raised her sword just in time to block the knights first strike, their swords meeting in a shower of sparks. She stood a full head taller than the knight in armor, the extra height gave her some leverage over the knight, he seemed to be channeling some strange energy into himself, his movements far exceeding that of his companions. The combination of his skill and the burst of energy he was channelling was giving him enough of an edge that he was keeping up against her unskilled but extremely fast strikes.

It happened before Elle could stop him, the knights blade had began to glow bright red, the runes on it nearly blinding her. She tried to dodge the strike but his moments where far to fast, his blade made it past her defenses and slammed into the side of her neck. The knights blade shattered on her exoskeleton, but the force of the blow brought her to her knee, Elle swung blindly with her sword and the knight barely jumped back in time. Elle's blade left a clean gash down the center of his armor, the knight looked stunned as he looked down at his broken sword and the gash in his armor, he made some hand gesture and the air was filled with a deafening roar.

The giant dragon the Knight had been riding was swooping down on them, its mouth was opened and prepared to fire. Elle moved in a blur leaping back, she grabbed the stunned child and ran like hell as the giant dragon belched fire down on the entire area. Once deep in the woods Elle stopped, hazarding a glance back she could make out the shape of the dragon in the sky heading away from them. She let out a large sigh of relief and collapsed to her knees, she let the girl down before she fell over exhausted.

Lori.

The Monst ... Lori stopped that train of thought, surely a monster would not have saved and protected her several times. The Women had saved her, she had ran faster than any animal Lori had ever encountered, Lori had to shut her eyes from the wind as the women ran. Lori had no idea how far they had run into the woods before the women collapsed, at first Lori didn't know what to do but she had remembered when the women had taken the helmet off. Lori tried to mimic the movements, it took several tries but she removed the helmet and immediately dropped it to the ground it weighted far to much for her to carry.

Lori stared at the face underneath, it certainly looked like the beast men, she had only seen their women on one occasion when one of their Mages had come to read some proclamation in her village. Except this one was far larger than she had thought they could get, She also looked to be ill, her skin was pale and covered in sweat. Lori tried to shake the creature but it was breathing shallow, she looked around, she was unsure how far they where, she remembered the creature had been carrying a bag, perhaps something was in there that could help.

Lori hesitated for only a second before heading back the way they had came, she had no idea how far they had ran but she had to help the women. She looked around briefly to find the trail they had made and began the long walk back.

Elle

Elle awoke to darkness, night had fallen and she was alone in the forest, she could see her helmet was at her side, she absently wondered when she had taken that off. She tried to remember why she was in a forest, everything was so foggy, it came back to her slowly, the child, the knights, the dragons.